


we love our children equally

by Ralyks



Category: Dialtown: Phone Dating Sim (Visual Novel)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghost Hunters, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Canon Autistic Character, Canon Gay Character, Canon Lesbian Character, Canon Trans Character, Childhood Trauma, Established Relationship, F/F, Falling In Love, Fluff, Found Family, Ghost Hunters, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Other, Religious Guilt, Roommates, Slice of Life, everyone has trauma okay, they're all roommates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:41:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26833099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ralyks/pseuds/Ralyks
Summary: karingi and .... oleander ?(previously "who you gonna call..." the title wasn't my idea)
Relationships: Gingi/Karen Dunn, Randy Jade/Oliver Swift, Typewritergingi/Karen Dunn
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

To say that Randy was terrified was an understatement.

He should’ve known that he would be absolutely petrified like this, and he should’ve said no. But he didn’t. He clung close to his boyfriend, silence hanging in the air.

The room was dark, other than Oliver’s flashlight. It was damp, and cold, and very unstable. Randy had already heard multiple planks of wood fall from the ceiling. He shook like a leaf in the wind as a chill passed through his body. His boyfriend swept the light around the room.

“Thank you for coming with me, dude!” Oliver said happily.

“Of course, yeah. Not like I had anything better to do,” Randy said with a smile. Oliver smiled back, turning to the room. His boyfriend fiddled with a radio. There was nothing but static coming from it.

The two men had come to this broken down place to find ghosts. This specific place had been reported to be very haunted, and Oliver had been ecstatic to learn about its history. He had explained to Randy on the drive all about it. Apparently, it had belonged to a wealthy pair of people in the 1800s, but they had mysteriously disappeared. Since then, it had gone through multiple owners who had also disappeared when finally it was abandoned completely.

Randy sighed. He loved his boyfriend, but having to deal with this ghost hunting was a little scary. Still, he could bear it for a little while longer if it meant he got to see Oliver’s smile. One day they’d find a ghost, and Randy could only hope it’d be a long while until then.

“Hey,” he started. “Maybe we should… go back soon. It’s getting late, and Karen won’t be happy about us staying out so long.”

“Just a few more minutes,” Oliver begged. “Let’s look in one more room.”

“Ah, alright.” Randy said. He followed Oliver up the creaky stairs, hoping desperately it wouldn’t collapse with them on it. They made it up the stairs fine, and Oliver pondered which room to go in for a moment.

“I think this is the room where that one owner died in…” The man mumbled to himself. He held onto the doorknob for a mere moment, then twisted it, opening the door with a loud creaking noise.

An unusual green skinned creature laid curled up on a dusty-looking pillow. It had long claws, stitches across its skin, and long black hair that looked knotted. It also had a… tail? Randy was a little surprised at this, but at least it wasn’t a ghost. 

“Woah!” Oliver gasped. “So cool!” He fumbled with something, then took out his old polaroid camera. He snapped a picture quickly, the flash blinding for only a mere moment.

Its head raised from the noise. It made some sort of noise akin to a cat, or maybe a frog? Randy felt himself jump a little as it stood up. It was a lot taller standing up, too. Much taller than Randy was, let alone Oliver. He felt the urge to step in front of his boyfriend to protect him, but he knew he was hopeless at combat. Besides, his muscles felt frozen.

“Uh, hey..?” Randy said. His voice cracked.

“Hey!” It echoed, grinning. Its teeth were incredibly sharp. Randy really hoped it wouldn’t try anything.

“You are so freaking awesome,” Oliver said in awe. “Did you do those stitches yourself?!”

“May-be,” It continued to grin. It seemed to revel in the positive attention.

Randy felt a little… intimidated? No, that wasn’t the right word for it. Either way, he didn’t trust this. He was about to ask (well, more beg) Oliver to talk to him and persuade him to leave now when his boyfriend spoke.

“You speak English? That’s _so_ rad.”

“I haven’t spoken it in a while,” it sighed, then shrugged. “Not that I want to.”

“Where do you live?”

“I go where I’d like to,” it said smugly. This only seemed to impress Oliver even more, and the creature continued. “I am held back by no one!” It spoke like they had been speaking English its whole life, yet it sounded a little… clunky. That was the best way Randy could describe it. It made sense, considering what they told him and Oliver not a few moments ago. The creature continued. “Except… maybe how cold it gets here,” it added quietly.

“How cold?” Oliver pressed.

“Very.” It sat down on its bed.

“I’m Oliver, and this is my boyfriend Randy.”

“I’m Gingi,” the creature grinned. “The mighty hunter! Oh, don’t worry,” they added, casting a glance over at Randy. It could probably smell fear or something, or maybe Randy’s face was pale in fear. “I only eat animals.”

“Thank god,” Randy sighed in relief.

He felt himself relax a little, realizing the creature most likely wouldn’t harm him or Oliver. If it had wanted to, they would’ve done it by now. He still tried to remain alert, but he felt safer for the most part.

“So what are you two doing here?”

Randy spoke up. “We’re looking for ghosts! Or… something of the sort.”

“Have you found any?”

“No…”

“That’s fine,” Gingi said. “I haven’t heard anything, or seen anything, around here before. No need to feel upset, because if _I_ couldn’t find a ghost then there probably isn’t one.” Gingi paused then added with a smirk. “Besides, I’m the scariest thing here anyway.”

There was an awkward tension for a moment. Neither party knew what to say.

“That bed doesn’t look very comfortable,” Randy noted.

“Not exactly,” Gingi sighed.

Oliver flashed a look at Randy, but he didn’t know what his boyfriend meant by it. At least, not until he opened his mouth.

“How would you like to come live with us?”

Randy turned his head to Oliver. “What?!”

Gingi seemed just as surprised. “Huh?”

“Yeah! We have an extra room, and… you seem really cool. We’d love to get to know more about you, and maybe we could sell a picture of you on the Internet for money- Not like that, of course! I just… I enjoy taking photos and videos and stuff, and you’re pretty abnormal, so... you get my point, right?”

Gingi seemed to consider it. “Maybe… Give me some time to think about it, perhaps.” Well, now they seemed to have made up their mind at this point. But maybe they thought the suspense would make Oliver beg or something.

Randy could tell that Oliver was going to. Instead of letting his boyfriend humiliate himself in front of this creature, he interrupted. “What’s your decision?”

Gingi blinked slowly, briefly disappointed about the way Randy flipped the situation on them. But, it must’ve not gotten them too down, because they then shook their whole body like a wet dog and grinned. “Sure. Lead the way, then!” 

It crawled back up, standing on its hind legs at first then crawling after them. The three worked their way down the stairs and outside of the house. Surrounding the house was a forest. They traveled through the trees, getting over a fence they had passed earlier. It was electric, but the electricity wasn’t running now, thankfully.

“Karen will not like this,” Randy muttered to Oliver as Gingi trailed after them.

The corner’s of Oliver’s lips curled up in a grin. “I know.”

The three got into Randy’s worn down car. Gingi asked questions about everything, from how long the drive would be, to what their house was like. Oliver did his best to let Gingi know about everything, but Randy could tell he was getting tired. They had stayed out later, not to mention Oliver’s shift at the movie theatre had lasted longer than usual and he hadn’t gotten much sleep because of it.

Randy pulled into the driveway. It was well after dark now, and he could already imagine the lecture Karen would give them about staying out too late. Hopefully though, she was asleep and not working. 

“Well, we’re here…”

“Great!” Gingi immediately ran in after Oliver unlocked the door. There was immediately a loud crash.

Oliver followed the creature, calling in surprise. “Gingi!”

Randy sighed and followed them.


	2. Chapter 2

Karen put her hands on her hips.

“What the  _ hell  _ is that?” She demanded, pointing to Gingi. They were sitting in the corner, gobbling up a bag of cheese. Oliver couldn’t help but smile at how weird it was. Rad.

Oliver and his boyfriend, Randy, shrugged at the same time. “We don’t know.”

“How did it get here?”

“We found it when we were ghost hunting,” Randy said nervously. “Did they bother you?”

“Well, I was making coffee this morning, and… they ran past me and made me spill it everywhere. I just-” Karen sighed. “Why did you bring them back here? Of all places?”

Oliver interjected. “They needed a place to stay- Well, not really, but… we could show them off and possibly get money for it.”

“You’re ghost hunters, not monster-”

“Don’t call me that,” Gingi said darkly. The entire room went silent after that. Then, its tail began thumping again and a grin returned to its face. 

“Either way,” Karen said. “I don’t know why they should stay here, of all places.”

Randy calmly entered the conversation. “Um… well, we could always bring them back or return them if it doesn’t work out.” Oliver was extremely grateful for his boyfriend’s reasoning skills.

Karen paused, and seemed to be considering it.. 

“Alright. It can stay. Don’t expect me to talk to it, though.” She walked away back to her room/office, and shut her door quietly. Gingi casted a confused look to Oliver and Randy, their tail still. They seemed to have run out of cheese.

“Does she not like me?” It asked, seemingly a little hurt. Oliver was a little surprised at that. Of all of the things that Gingi would be hurt about, it was whether or not Karen liked them?

Randy sighed. Oliver leaned onto the man’s shoulder as he talked. He was so tired, but he had a shift at the gas station in half an hour. “She has… trouble connecting with people sometimes. Karen works most of the time anyways, so I think it should be fine.”

“...Alright…” Gingi still seemed upset about this, but didn’t want to show it. They scurried away, and Oliver could hear clawing at the front door. “Can I go outside?”

Oliver resisted the urge to smile at how similar they were to a dog and nodded. He stood up, and opened the door to let them out. Then, he sat back down next to Randy and pressed his face against the table. Randy continued eating his cereal.

“Are you alright?” Randy asked.

“I’m fine,” Oliver mumbled. “Tired.”

“You could always call in sick. And maybe I could too, and- oh, we could go on a date today! We haven’t in a while. Maybe we could go to the mall or something..?” Randy looked at him hopefully.

Oliver brightened at the idea. “That sounds so rad! Hell yeah!” Then, he yawned. “Or maybe we could spend a day at home…” 

Randy shrugged. “Whatever you’d like.” The taller man took Oliver’s hand in his own, casting a smile to him. “I’ll go call both of our jobs, and you can pick a movie for us to watch or something.”

The two set off, briefly forgetting about the cryptid. They quickly managed to get their tasks done, and settled down next to each other. Oliver had picked out an old action movie and let Randy lean on him. 

The pair had only been watching it for 30 minutes when they heard a noise outside.

“What was that?” Oliver asked aloud.

Randy shrugged, looking to the door. Suddenly, it burst open.

Gingi wagged its tail, holding a dead rabbit in its mouth. Randy couldn’t help but scream. They dropped it at Oliver and Randy’s feet, proudly looking down to the men. Blood leaked out from a wound in its neck into the carpet.

“What the hell?!” Randy gasped. “Did you kill it?!”

“Yep!”

Oliver poked at its body. “Sick…” 

“Not sick! Get it out of here!” Randy exclaimed.

Gingi looked a little saddened by this, but stood up and lifted it to put it outside. Randy anxiously pulled a little on his hair, trying to not freak out about the obvious blood stain on the carpet.

Oliver held his face. “Hey, calm down! We can clean it up quickly.”

“That poor rabbit…” Randy mourned, but calmed down enough to get out hydrogen peroxide. The two men worked quickly enough to almost completely get rid of it. The stain was more of a light pink now, however it was the best they could do. 

Gingi came back with blood on their lips. It seemed happier now, sitting on the couch. It looked like they were trying to sit like Oliver and Randy, but it was a little awkward.

“I really hope you didn’t eat that,” Randy said. 

Oliver added, “We have plenty of food here. You don’t need to hunt.”

“I’m feral!” It cried in annoyance, lashing its tail. Still, it sighed. “Fine. But I’m still gonna go outside. You can’t keep me inside.”

“We wouldn’t want to,” Randy mumbled.

Karen set down her purse, and took off her coat. 

“Hi Karen,” Oliver called.

“What’s that?” She asked, pointing at the light red stain. Of course she would find it almost immediately. She had an eye for that sort of stuff. 

“Nothing,” Randy responded casually. Gingi sat down on the couch and smiled at Karen, who averted her eyes from the cryptid. It seemed disappointed by this. Oliver made some kind of point in his mind to let Gingi know it wasn’t personal. Or maybe Karen would tell them herself.

The woman’s eyes did fix onto the stain for a moment, but then she sighed and looked away. “I’m going to sleep,” she said with a yawn. Gingi began to walk after her but stopped when she looked back in surprise. 

Once her door shut softly, Gingi immediately looked at Randy and Oliver for an explanation. 

“Do you think she's be mad?”

Oliver shook his head. “She’s not mad.”

“She  _ seemed  _ mad,” Gingi said with a sigh. Still, it sat back down on the chair and shrugged. Oliver was about to try to comfort them when he leaned back onto Randy’s shoulder. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> apologies for the slow updates, we dropped this project for a bit but we're working on it again :)

**Author's Note:**

> this whole au idea was made by my good friend sky, or also @Ralyks. i'm doing most of the writing but sometimes they'll help !
> 
> we have an idea that it might be around 11 chapters so far, however that will almost definitely change.
> 
> my instagram: slushyishere  
> sky's instagram: dual_doodles


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